Fractionating apparatus



y 1951 N. H. SHUTTLEWORTH 2,983,495

FRACTIONATING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet x Filed March '7, 1958 lll l Mayv9, 1961 N, H. SHUTTLEWORTH 8 FRACTIONATING APPARATUS Filed March 7, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I Invert/Ev- 7 I H 3 A United States Patent FRACTIONATING APPARATUS Norman Harry Shuttleworth, Tettenhall, England, as-

signor to Marston Excelsior Limited, Wolverhampton, England, a British company Filed Mar. 7, 1958, Ser. No. 719,766

Claims priority, application Great Britain 11, 1957 2 Claims. (Cl. 261-4112) posed substantially flat partitions arranged within the column, each of said partitions extending angul-arly between'the side walls and having at least its bottom edges sealed in fluid-tight relationship to a side wall, the direction of angularity of each partition'being opposite that of the directly adjacent partitions so as to form a zig-zag stack of partitions between the side walls, each of said partitions further having at least one aperture through its upper portion, whereby the portion thereof below said aperture forms with the corresponding chamber side wall a liquid-collecting-trough in which the upper level of the liquid is substantially determined by the lowest edge of the aperture, the marginal end portions of each of said partitions being deformed upwardly at an acute angle to the normal plane thereof and terminating at a level at least as high as the lowest level of the aperture in the partition, the lower edges of said end portions constituting upwardly inclined continuations of the lower partition edge and being sealed in fluid-tight relationship to the corresponding side wall, whereby liquid Will be contained by said trough despite the absence of a seal between the end edges of the marginal portions and the end walls of the chamber.

The invention also provides a fractionating column comprising a vertically extending fractionating chamber having upright sides and end wallsan-d a sheet of fluidirnpervious material bent to a zig-zag formation to provide a series of superposed substantially flat partitions alternately reversed in direction, said sheet being located Within the chamber and having its apices sealed in fluidtight relationship to the respective column side walls, each of said partitions having at least one aperture through its upper portion, whereby the portion of the partition below the aperture forms a wall of liquid-collecting-trough in which the upper level of the liquid is substantially determined by the lowest edge of the aperture, the marginal end portions of each of said partitions being deformed upwardly at an acute angle to the wall plane thereof and terminating at a level at least as high as the lowest level of the aperture in the partition to define end walls for said trough, the lower edges of said end portions constituting upwardly inclined continuations of the lower partition edge and being sealed in fluid-tight relationship to the corresponding side wall, whereby liquid will be contained by'said trough despite the absence of a seal between the end edges of the marginal portions and the end walls of the chamber.

One specific construction of a fractionating column embodying the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Patented May 9, 1961 Figure 1 is a perspective view, .part broken away, of the multiple unit fractionating apparatus; Figure 2 is an enlarged perspective view, part broken away, showing a spacer element in greater detail;

Figure 3 is an elevation of a spacer element, part broken away; and Figure 4 shows a unit of the apparatus in transverse vertical section. a

Thefractionating apparatus to be described has a series of parallel vertical metal walls 11, 12 (each pair of walls being say, 0.445 inch apart) separated by horizontally corrugated metal spacer elements 13 (metal thickness say, 0.022 inch) which are (e.g. by brazing) to the walls where they touch them at the bends or apices of the corrugations. The length of each spacer element, measured in the direction of the horizontal corrugations, may be say, six inches, and the heightof each spacer element may be say, five feet. A convenient corrugation pitch is 0.50 inch giving 120 pitches for a height of five feet. Each section of each corrugated spacer element between consecutive bends in the element, constitutes a partition 10, and just below every apex or bend, each spacer element is provided with a hori; zontal rowof, rectangular fluid flow apertures 16, each of which apertures may be say, 0.25 inch long. The

apertures may be spaced say, 0.062 inch apart. The

part of each partition below the row of apertures thereof constitutes a wall of a liquid-collecting pocket or trough 17, and a further-wall of each pocket or trough is provided by one of the vertical metal walls 11, 12. In the prior construction disclosed in United States Patent No. 2,885,195, end closure strips 20 are sealed to the waveform side edges of the spacer elements 13 and to the vertical metal walls 11, 12 in order to ensure that all or the greater part of the liquid shall overflow from the troughs 17 through the apertures 16 and not leak away at the ends of the troughs.

However, in the present construction the wave-form side edges or marginal portions of the spacer elements 13 are not undeformed as shown in Figure 1 of United States Patent No. 2,885,195, but instead they are bent or curved upwards to form end walls 18 for the troughs 17. These marginal portions may be say, 0.38 inch wide (measured in a direction along the length of the element) and may be smoothly bent or curved with a radius of say, 0.10 inch, to provide trough end walls approximately 0.18 inch in height. With this construction it is only necessary to seal the end closure strips 20 to the vertical metal walls 11, 12 and brazing or otherwise bonding the closure strips 20 to the wave-form ends of the spacer elements 13 is not necessary.

As can be seen from the drawings, the upper edges 22 of the bent-up end portions 18 of each partition 10 are inclined to the horizontal and the lowest parts 21 of the upper edges 22 of each portion lie above the horizontal level of the lowest edges 23 of the apertures 16. Consequently, in use liquid escapes from the troughs 17 over the lower edges 23 of the aperture 16 and not over the upper edges of the bent-up end portion 18. To prevent liquid flow between the lowest side edge 24 of each bentup end portion 18, i.e., the side edge of the bent-up portion which forms a continuation of the lower edge of the partition, that side edge is sealed (e.g., welded) to the adjacent side wall (11, 12) of the column.

Moreover, it is possible to build up a longer unit (considered in the direction of the horizontal corrugations of the spacer elements) by assembling a number of the marginally deformed spacer elements sideby-side in each channel of the fractionating apparatus.

The apparatus is suitable for use in connection with the treatment of air for the separation of oxygen and nitrogen by liquefaction and frictionation as described, for example, in United States patent application, Serial No. 468,110, now Patent 2,861,432.

I claim:

1. A fractionating column comprising a vertically extending fractionating chamber having upright side walls and end walls and a series of superposed substantially fiat partitions arranged within the column,'each of said partitions extending angularly between the side walls and having at least its bottom edges sealed in fluid-tight relationship to a side wall, the direction of angularity of each partition being opposite that of the directly adjacent partitions so as to form a zig-zag stack of partitions between the side walls, each of said partitions further having at least one aperture through its upper portion, whereby the portion thereof below said aperture forms with the corresponding chamber side wall a. liquidcollecting-trough in which the upper level of the liquid is substantially determined by the lowest edge of the aperture, the marginal end portions of each of said partitions being deformed upwardly at an acute angle-to the thermal plane thereof and terminating at a level at least as high as the lowest level of the aperture in the partition, the lower edges of said end portions constituting upwardly inclined continuations of the lower partition edge and being sealed in fluid-tight relationship to the corresponding side wall, whereby liquid will be contained by said trough despite the absence of a seal between the end edges of the marginal portions and the end walls of the chamber.

2. A fractionating column comprising a vertically extending fractionating chamber having upright sides and end Walls and a sheet of fluid-impervious material bent to a zig-zag formation to provide a series of superposed substantially flat partitions alternately reversed in direction, said sheet being located within the chamber and having its apices sealed in fluid-tight relationship to the respective column side walls, each of said partitions having at least one aperture through its upper portion, whereby the portion of the partition below the aperture forms a Wall of liquid-collecting-trough in which the upper level of the liquid is substantially determined by the lowest edge of the aperture, the marginal end portions of each of said partitions being deformed upwardly at an acute angle to the wall plane thereof and terminating at a level at least as high as the lowest level of the aperture in the partition to define end Walls for said trough, the lower edges of said end portions constituting upwardly inclined continuations of the lower partition edge and being sealed in fluid-tight relationship to the corresponding side wall, whereby liquid will be contained by said trough despite the absence of a seal between the end edges of the marginal portions and the end walls of the chamber.

References Citedin the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,169,764 Brassert Feb. 1, 1916 1,701,978 Lakin Feb. 12, 1929 2,540,091 Brackney Feb. 6, 1951 2,681,269 Bergstrom June 15, 1954 2,805,845 Berry Sept. 10, 1957 2,885,195 Haselden May 5, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 678,100 Germany July 8, 1939 684,870 Germany Dec. 7, 1939 

